


Throw me to the crows (I prefer them to you)

by loveless_klark



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23970322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveless_klark/pseuds/loveless_klark
Summary: A character study of Fox, from life on the Ark to life after the mountain.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Throw me to the crows (I prefer them to you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StrangerThanXsAnatomy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangerThanXsAnatomy/gifts).



> Dedicated to StrangerThanXAnatomy (StrangerThanx) who asked me to write a story on Fox because she had more potential than was used. Because I totally don't have a ton of other things to do, I wrote it. Sorry it's so late I know I'm a lazy ass :)
> 
> Light edits; I'm sure there are mistakes.

_ You promised. _

Her body felt like it was burning alive.

_ You promised! _

Savage roars echoed through her head, followed by a sick rip.

_ YOU PROMISED! _

_ ~ _

Fox had never had an easy life.

She grew up in the Peda Station, headquarters for education and rehabilitation. Both of her parents were teachers, all of her neighbors were educators, childcare workers, or the likes. Through school, she knew almost every teacher. Which would seem like a good thing. Teacher-student relationships  _ are  _ important, after all.

Well. Not good for your social life.

Fox wasn’t hated, but she wasn’t liked, either. She wasn’t very present. The other kids overlooked her. Her friends were made up of the other kids from her station, and that was it. Nobody else really knew anything about her. She was just another face in a crowd; people knew she was there, but never really cared.

Being a part of Peda Station had other negatives. Such as instilling Fox with a complete lack of independence.

Part of that was her parents. They always pushed for her to have good grades, to be an obedient student, to be  _ better.  _ They pushed this same ideal onto the other teachers as well. Her instructors, knowing her, would pamper her. Make sure she did the best she could. Favor her over the others.

As a child, this was wonderful. She loved being the favorite. She thought it was the best thing.

Then she hit middle school.

And she learned that it was  _ not  _ the best thing.

She figured out the reason why no one ever wanted her as a friend. They thought her privileged. Childish. They mocked her innocence; they mocked her dependence; they mocked her lineage. In their minds, not being like them was to be wrong.

She cried about it to her parents. They told her to not listen to the others.

She tried.

It didn’t work.

She reached freshman year. It was that year she decided that she would try to be like the others. To fit in with the crowd. Because you’re supposed to be like everyone else. That’s why they teased her. Because she wasn’t like them.

So she denied help. She started pushing away her teachers, her neighbors. She hated it. They were nice people, they didn’t deserve to be pushed away like this.

But nobody else liked them. And she was supposed to be like everyone else.

The change in her concerned them. Some of the teachers tried to talk to her about it, to figure out what was wrong, why she was suddenly acting like this. She refused. Screamed in their faces when they kept pressing her, talking to her like she was no more than an innocent child who can’t function by herself. Talking in soft tones, like she was a damn toddler. She wouldn’t have it. So she fled. Skipped her classes, curled up at home, and felt sorry for herself.

Fox’s parents tried as well. They weren’t so nice about it.

But she still  _ hated  _ it. Why can’t she change? Why can’t they let her be? Why does she always have to fit into their expectations of being the perfect child? Smart, dependent, in need of  _ them _ . She loathed it.

She ran.

Curled up in a dark corner on the Ark, somewhere far from Peda, she cried. Messy and shaking, she cried until she felt empty, felt hollow. It was horrible. It was perfect.

The guards found her three hours after curfew.

“Hey, kid, what are you doing? Get home. Scram!”

Fox squeezed her eyes closed and buried her face in her knees. 

“Kid, you listening? Get out of here!”

Silence.

She heard him muttering quietly. “I’ll force you if I have to. Drag you home by the hair.”

Fine then. Do it. It’s not like her life could get any worse.

“Listen, kid, the policy here is strict. You know that. I could put you in prison for this. Let’s go.”

Prison?  
That didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

She thought bout it. If she went to prison, she’d remain there for the next four years, until she was reassessed and either let free or floated. But maybe then she wouldn’t have to deal with the bullying. With her parent’s pressure.With the constant babying of all the adults. Maybe the other kids would actually respect her for once.

Fox made her decision.

“Kid, come on. Don’t fight me. We can do this easily.” The guard grasped her wrist, pulling her up.

She curled her free hand into a fist, arm tensing.

He pulled her to her feet with enough force to have her teetering.

She swung.

The guard cried out as her fist connected with his nose. It didn’t break, she wasn’t strong enough to do that, but blood began to leak out of it. He sputtered. Swiped at his nose, and looked at the blood smeared across the back of his hand.

He lunged forward, grabbing her by the shoulders hard enough to bruise. “Then you give me no choice,” he growled, shoving her forward. She tried to break from his grasp but was far too weak.

She was going to prison.

_ ~ _

Fox stared at the blood on her hand.

They’d thrown her into a cell last night. After her adrenaline rush faded, it hadn’t taken much for her to pass out, but now that it was morning and the lights lit up her room, she could clearly see the smudge of red on her fingers.

She had done that.

God, she had  _ done that _ .

She didn’t regret her decision, but holy shit,  _ she had done that _ . She’d punched a guard in the face. Openly rebelled against the Ark’s laws. She’d never rebelled against  _ anything _ . This was a first. She didn’t know what to do with herself.

A loud alarm blared, and her cell clicked open. The other prisoners flowed out, all moving in the same direction, wherever it was. She pushed herself up, feeling a bit woozy. 

She followed the pack.

That was all she’d ever done.

_ ~ _

Fox was sixteen when she was sent down to Earth in a metal pod of death.

She didn’t really expect to make it past the first day. She thought she’d die when she was hurtling down to Earth. She thought she’d die of toxic air. She thought she’d die of starvation, of thirst, looking at their pitiful rations.

She listened to the blonde one, Clarke, talk about the supplies at Mount Weather. At a mountain that could only be seen far in the distance.

It felt hopeless.

It didn’t help that criminals surrounded her. Some were down there for crimes like stealing food or medicine, or, like her, punching a guard. Some were down for murder or arson. She felt afraid. Alone. Like she always did.

When Bellamy started taking off wristbands, everyone seemed so excited. So happy to be rid of them.

So hers was popped right off.

Most people didn’t seem very concerned. The blonde and her group were the only ones really trying to survive, and Fox could respect that, but no one else cared. They shunned them. Made fun of them. And yet still they stood strong, pushing their point, trying to gain support. 

Fox envied that strength. That confidence.

She wished she had enough of it to actually support the side she was rooting for.

But she didn’t. She went with the pack like she always did.

It was the only way to stay safe.

_ ~ _

A loud bang and an explosion shook the floor.

Fox looked up from where she sat, shooting to her feet. All of the forty-four readied themselves, weapons ready. She looked around desperately, jogging over to Jasper. “We’re not ready for this!”

Jasper looked at her from where he was watching the cameras with Monty. “Yes, we are. Just follow the plan. We’ll be okay, I promise.”

She let out a breath, nodding shakily. “Okay.” Jasper’s attention turned back to Monty, and Fox scampered away. She hefted her makeshift-sword, entire body quivering nervously. This was it. This was their stand. If they failed, there wouldn’t be another chance.

The door shuddered. The clinging  _ thunk  _ of something hitting the door made everyone flinch. It came again, and again, and again until it ripped the doors off their hinges. The pile of furniture they’d made wasn’t moved, but instead, grenades leaking red gas were thrown over. Fox took a deep breath, holding her nose closed as the grenades were quickly dunked into buckets of water. She collapsed onto the floor in mock unconscious.

The chairs were easily discarded and guards stormed the chamber. Guns were pointed every which way, and she couldn’t prevent a shudder when one was pointed directly at her head. She watched through slitted eyes as they walked around, one picking a grenade out of the water, and that was when they struck.

Fox slammed her clunky weapon into the head of one of the guards, knocking him back enough for someone to put a bullet in his chest. She spun, smacking another in the chest, and then swiping two more off their feet. She gasped as someone grabbed her by the shoulder, turning and hitting his head hard enough to make an audible  _ clang _ . Someone else got her elbow and pulled hard, making her stumble. They ripped the metal out of her hands and another set of hands grabbed her free arm, rendering her defenseless.

She kicked and screamed as they dragged her out the door, Mountain Men guards rushing out. Jasper roared in victory as they took her away, taken, caught.

_ He promised. He promised. _

_ He promised! _

Her eyes caught on a camera in the corner. “Jasper!” She screamed. “You promised! You promised! You-”

A hand covered her mouth, muffling her screams. She sobbed, body sagging as she realized that there was nothing she could do. This was it. This was where she died.

She gagged as they dragged her into a room with another delinquent on a table, strapped down, torso bloody. The room stank of death and decay.

They threw her into a cage.

Her death was set in stone.

_ ~ _

_ Pain. _

That was all she could feel.

Her entire body throbbed, fire burning her skin. She couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, only knew  _ pain _ .

A loud buzzing filled her ears.

Something split her skin, spinning, digging deeper and deeper into her flesh.

She screamed.

_ Pain _ .

_ ~ _

Fox awoke to loud roars and a sick  _ rrrrip _ .

She jerked, holding back a scream as her torso ignited. She clutched her waist with one arm and used the other to sit herself up. She was in a rickety cart, smeared with a brownish substance that she didn’t really want to think about right now. What she couldn’t ignore, however, were the bodies.

They lay all around her. Bodies of grounders, tattoos lining their dirt-stained bodies, and the bodies of delinquents. The expressions on their faces were nothing short of pure terror. Fox saw one body twitch, the head rolling to look at her with blank, dead eyes, and she lurched to the side, emptying her stomach.

The feral cries filtered back into her ears. She looked over the edge of the cart and immediately ducked back down. Reapers. She’d seen a few of them, but never so close, and not like this. Not crowded over the body of something vaguely human-shaped. 

_ I have to get out. _

She scrambled to the other side of the cart, ignoring all her senses in favor of one simple prospect: staying alive. She glanced back at the reapers, focused on their meal, and hopped the side of the cart, crouching low behind it. She was shaking so badly, her instincts telling her to run, to run and never look back, but she didn’t. She glanced around the cart and watched the reapers toss the remains of the body to the side, roaring as a couple held up blood-slick bones.

One meandered over to the cart, pulling another body out by the leg. He held it up and bellowed, the others echoing his excitement. The reaper ripped a piece of the arm out while another charged over and grabbed it by the head. Soon it was an all-out brawl over the body. Fox watched until they ripped the first limb clean off and had to stop. It was too much.

Not knowing what else to do, she crept toward the nearest exit, staying low. Her breath was loud and heavy but she tried to keep it contained. This was not her forté. She was a follower, not a leader. She wasn’t the one who dictated survival. Not even over herself.

She’d always said that she was alone.

And now she really was.

As soon as she reached the opening she bolted, racing down the corridor as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn’t know if there would be more reapers, mountain men, grounders, her own people, but she hoped. Each turn lowered her spirits even more. What if she got lost in here, could never find her way out? The reapers would get to her for sure. She wouldn’t even get the blessing of being dead first, either. They’d tear her limb-from-limb while she was still alive and screaming.

The pain in her hips had died to a low throb while she ran, too high on adrenaline to notice it. As soon as she burst out into the forest, though, it returned with a new passion. She cried out and stumbled, almost collapsing onto the ground. But she couldn’t. Not here, where the reapers might find her, even if they had food for days. She shuddered at the thought. 

Fox stumbled maybe thirty feet away before tripping and falling into the rock. She let tears spill from her eyes curling up into a ball to protect against the ever-colder night. Dawn was rising in the distance, but she couldn’t care less. It wasn’t as if she’d be able to do much, daylight or not.

She weaved in and out of consciousness for who knew how long, but when she finally fully woke, it was dusk. Her hip had died to a slow pulsing beat, enough that she could pull herself up using the earthen wall to her back. Her stomach ached in hunger, but she’d paid enough attention in Earth Skills to know that water was more important.

So she set off. Traveled away from the mountain; to where she’d no idea. Each step sounded loudly through the trees, making her isolation even more apparent. No doubt it scared off any animal in her area.

Fox found the river, the one she assumed Jasper had gotten speared at. Which side of it she was on, she didn’t know. But it was water, however unsanitary it was. She tried scooping some fish out, too, but they always slipped out of her grip.

So she started to die.

The irony was almost laughable. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. She almost wished the reapers had killed her, or whatever procedure they had her doing had. At least then she wouldn’t have to slowly die of starvation. The nights were getting colder, too, and she had no idea just how cold it had to be before frostbite would start to set in.

Fox curled up under a tree, nestled comfortably between the roots. There was a little warmth there, though not much, and she almost considered gnawing on the leaves to see if those could feed her. Her body, shivering and exhausted from - what was it, four, five days without food? - shut down almost the moment that she settled.

_ ~ _

The next she knew, Fox was tied to a pole in the middle of a tent.

It took some time for her situation to catch up, but once it did she began to thrash. Pull against the ropes binding her wrists behind her, looking around desperately for anything. The tent wasn’t very large, maybe ten feet wide, and it was made of shabby red fabric that looked far too tattered to possibly be of good use. The only thing inside, other than her, was a single chair which held a grounder man. His face was streaked with blue paint, set in a grimace as he stroked a whetstone over his blade.

Fox was hyperventilating at this point. “Who are you? Where am I?”

The man chuckled, looking up at her. “Why, you’re a prisoner now. Since the damn commander refused to let annihilate you, we’re doing it ourselves.”

“We? Who are you?”

“Why would I tell you that?”

Fox was panting, wrists starting to be rubbed raw. She needed to get out of here. How? She had no weapon, no strength, no wits, dammit, she wasn’t the one who made these decisions! She didn’t know how to outsmart a grounder, how to escape from capture, not even how to sneak out of a tent! She couldn’t do this. There was no chance. She thought the forest would kill her? These stupid grounders would do it instead!

She hung her head low, thinking, hoping something would come, something that could show her the way. But she knew there was nothing. This was all on her. If she wanted to live, she’d have to do it herself. But there was no way.

Then her eye caught on a glint of silver.

_ A dagger!  _ The man had a dagger in his belt. If she could just get it from him, somehow…

Useless. He’d never give her a weapon. That would be supremely stupid.

Unless…

When she next spoke, her voice had a bit more of a rasp. “You want to annihilate my people?”

The guard looked up at her. “We can and we will. You may have your guns, but even one clan has more than enough people to get past that. We are many. We can overthrow you and then force  _ Heda  _ to accept it.”

Fox pursed her lips anxiously. “We brought down the mountain when all twelve of your clans couldn’t.”

The guard laughed. “No. If  _ Heda  _ hadn’t retreated like a coward, we would have won. We’d have stormed that mountain and murdered every person inside. All  _ Skaikru  _ did was sneak around and wave their guns. Well, guess what -  _ Skaikru  _ has no fortress.  _ Skaikru  _ has no acid fog or missiles that would hold us at bay. We’d  _ slaughter  _ you.”

“You’d never make it past the gate.”

“Why? Because we’re  _ savages _ ?” He stood, sword swinging in his hands. “How many of you are there? A thousand?  _ Ouskejon Kru  _ has over ten times that number in just warriors, not to mention the other clans that would also like your blood.”

Fox was shaking at this point, but now that she’d started, there was no turning back. “You grounders are all brute. The reason you couldn’t defeat the mountain without us is because you don’t have the brains. You’re all strength, no wits. Just because you have the numbers doesn’t mean you can outsmart us. We can handle a few barbarians.”

The guard roared. “You damn bitch!” The sword sliced through her bonds, a knife slamming into the wood above her head. He sneered. “If you’re so much better, than  _ fight me!  _ Prove to me that you’re superior! That you’re the better warrior!”

Fox let herself feel a moment of pride for being able to get a blade, but it would be for nothing if she couldn’t keep it. She yanked it out of the wood, holding it unsteadily in front of her as the man tossed his sword to the side and charged her. She ducked, trying to aim a hit on his side but he grabbed her by the waist and threw her to the other side of the tent. The fabric rippled and the entire tent shook with the force of her impact. Before she could do anything, the guard grabbed her by the leg, pulling her toward him and landing a punch to her stomach that had her gasping for breath.

Before anything else could happen, the fabric was thrown to the side, three more guards marching in. The one at the head, a dark-skinned woman, took the guard by the arm and pulled him up. Fox discreetly slid the knife into her pants. “ _ Branwoda! _ ” She hissed. “ _ Au! Fou ai sen yu ona pou! _ ”

The guard hissed but left the tent. The woman gestured to the others that came in with her. Fox was promptly tied back up, this time with a knife tucked into the hem of her jeans.

The woman scowled at her before speaking the guards. “ _ Set daun setnes ausad. _ ”

The guards nodded. All three exited the tent, leaving Fox alone.

_ ~ _

It wasn’t hard to see when night had fallen.

Inside the tent, it got so dark that it was almost pitch-black. There were no lights, no candles, no torches, the only light coming through the tatters in the tent fabric, and even that was very little. It was the perfect cover.

Fox shifted, reaching as far around the pole as she could, fingers fumbling for the hilt of the knife. She brushed fabric, just barely getting two fingers around the hilt before pulling it out, careful not to drop it. Now she just needed to break the ropes without cutting off a finger.

Twisting it around, she maneuvered the knife until it rested between her skin and the rope, not without gaining multiple gashes on her palm and wrist. From there, it was a matter of strength to push the blade through the thick lines. When it finally burst free on the other side, the knife flew from her grasp and clattered to the ground, but it didn’t matter, because she was free. Fox took the knife anyway, just in case.

The tarp at the back of the tent easily slid up, either from poor design or just from how ruined the fabric was, she couldn’t tell. Whatever the reason, she wasn’t complaining. The tent seemed to be on the outskirts of a small camp, maybe ten or fifteen total housings. The largest one waved a white flag with a black circle and two arrows crossing each other atop it. The clan symbol, probably. Not like she knew enough about the clans to recognize which one it was.

The outside guards seemed more focused on keeping things out than in, so slipping away wasn’t hard at all. The trees covered her in shadows so dark no one would be able to tell she was there, as long as she kept to them. Her heart was pounding, and without another thought, she ran.

Fox ran and ran until she couldn’t run anymore, and then she collapsed against the thick trunk of a large oak. Her chest was heaving, eyes closed, hand clutched to her heart. 

_ She did it. _

_ Holy shit she did it. _

The shock electrifying her body reminded her of when she’d got thrown in prison, that same jolt of  _ oh my god oh my god oh my god.  _ The situation wasn’t too much different, either, if you didn’t could that one was for not going to bed and the other was ‘I’m going to die.’

It was the feeling she got when she took control of her life.

Up until now, she’d had people to lean on, people refusing to let her leave their grasp. When she escaped that grasp, she didn’t know how to move without support, and so she found others. In the prison, she relied on the guard’s instructions and the pack-like elements of the prisoners. At the Dropship, she’d relied on the leading powers, like Bellamy and Clarke. At the mountain, she’d relied on Jasper and Monty. Now, she was alone, and she was finally standing by herself.

Fox whooped loudly, a laugh cracking through her throat. Eventually, she was giggling crazily, thrilled with herself because she’d actually done it. She’d  _ done it _ . God, she couldn’t get over the fact that  _ she did it _ .

Well, couldn’t until a rustle in the brush silenced her.

The deathly quiet, especially in the dark, was quite frightening even after days of having experienced it. Fox didn’t dare move a muscle. Was it one of the grounders, come to take her back? To kill her? Or was it an animal, like that panther they’d ate at the dropship?

Turns out, it was neither.

Someone stepped out of the shadows, revealing a young boy who couldn’t be older than ten. He stared at her with wide eyes, quivering, just standing there watching her. Fox was in a similar state. What was this boy doing in the middle of the forest? He couldn’t have been with the grounders she’d just came from, could he?

She didn’t get the chance to ask him. He fled.

There was silence.

_ ~ _

Come dawn, Fox awoke again to sunlight streaming through the trees. She was greeted with a face far too close for her liking.

A gasp escaped her, flinching back. The young boy, the same as last night, drew back a little but remained in front of her. He hesitantly held up a wrapped leaf. When he unveiled the meat inside it, Fox couldn’t bother with manners. She devoured it as quickly as she could.

The boy grinned toothily and offered her another. That one disappeared as quickly as the first. “Thank you,” she mumbles around bites. He beamed.

“It’s good to see you haven’t lost your appetite.” Her head whipped to the side to see an old man, likely a grandfather, hobbling over. “I was worried you might have been too far gone.”

Fox tried to get up, only to sag back down, the boy reaching out to help her. “Where am I?”

The man smiled. “You’re among one of many nomad groups. My grandson found you here and said you looked deathly sick. I imagine you haven’t eaten in a while, yes?”

Fox nodded, smiling when the young boy held out another piece of meat. She took this one more slow. “It’s been a week.”

“Then it’s good we found you. You may have stayed alive for another two weeks or so, but your body would’ve collapsed from exhaustion very soon. The spirits smile upon you, my dear.”

Fox swallowed another bite of the meat. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because we are not like the  _ kongeda _ . We do not care what clan you hail from, whether you are a warrior or not, nomad groups exist to live outside that discrimination. We accept all that we can, no matter how strong.”

Fox perked up. “Really? You mean…”

The man chuckled. “Yes, I am inviting you to come along with us. At least until you regain your strength.”

Fox looked at the young boy in front of her, smiling from ear to ear. She smiled shyly back at him. “I’d love to.”

The boy clapped his hands, grasping her arm and pulling her up. She laughed, stumbling up after him as he tugged her deeper into the trees. Her body was still weary from so many days without food, but she felt happy, at least for now. These people would help her.

Smoke rising in the distance let her know that they were approaching the nomad group. Voices reached her ears through the wind, laughing, children shouting with joy, and the smile on her face only grew wider.

Fox hadn’t been truly happy in years.

She hoped it would never end.

**Author's Note:**

> Trig translations:  
> Ouskejon Kru - Blue Cliff People  
> Branwoda - idiot  
> Au! Fou ai sen yu ona pou! - Out! Before I put you on a pole!  
> Set daun setnes ausad - Stand guard outside  
> Kongeda - coalition
> 
> Before people yell at me: I adore the grounders, I don't consider them savages, brutes, anything I used in text, that was just to keep Fox in character because, well, she has no reason to think them otherwise. 
> 
> Have any fic requests? Comment it below or shoot me a message on Tumblr at LovelessDyke
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
